Your company’s EVPs are the messages that will convince potential and current employees about the values of your workplace. From the warehouse to the management floor, EVPs answer the question: “As a candidate, why should I choose your company?” But they also describe what the company expects from the candidate.
Your EVPs should offer something that your competitors don’t. Something that your employees and dream candidates can follow and support — and something that your company can work with in the long run and adjust on an ongoing basis.
Five ways to work with EVPs
When an employee decides to switch jobs, usually it’s due to the belief that the grass is greener somewhere else. Your EVPs must aim to describe exactly how green the grass is at your end — to either attract or retain — and that can be done in five ways:
Opportunities—
It’s crucial for current employees that they see potential in their current job and the organization they are part of. Your EVPs should clearly define how your workplace creates the room for individual growth and what this includes – for example through opportunities of increased responsibility, posting in other countries, internal development programs, courses, and skill development, etc. Obviously, this also goes for the talent you’re looking to attract.
People—
Nearly everyone has a boss and that’s why it’s crucial that you describe what style of management your company works with. Will you become part of a social workplace with Friday bars, monthly social events, and annual company parties? How is the overall tone and how do management ensure the personal development of every employee?
Organization—
A job is typically not chosen based on the daily tasks alone. The decision is most often a sum of many considerations that also include the company’s reputation, its market position, the quality of its products and services — and not least, its role in the local community. If you succeed in presenting your company as an attractive workplace, it’s more likely that you will succeed in retaining your current employees and attracting new ones.
Jobs—
Work-life balance is a significant element in Danish working life and is a hot topic for debate. So, it’s important that you show how your company distinguishes free time from work — if you do, that is. At the same time, you should demonstrate that the job roles are fun, challenging, and stimulating, and explain how the responsibility will grow concurrently with the employee’s skill level.
Profit—
Salary, bonuses, perks, and vacation time are some of the most tangible — and therefore most important — elements at stake when people switch jobs. So, naturally, you need to describe what you offer and spin it in the best light possible.
Five methods. It sounds simple enough. And then again, unfortunately, many EVPs end up shockingly ineffective. Either because they are not different enough or because they are too far removed from reality. If your EVPs must answer the question, “Why should I work here?” then you obviously need to provide a clear answer. And to find that answer, you should look inwards.
What projects are your team most excited by? Are they unique to your company? Do you offer something special to the group of potential employees that your company needs the most? And at the most basic level: what do your employees appreciate the most about your company? In all likelihood, the answers will provide you with the information you need when working with the five pillars that define your EVPs.
The task is then to distill the answers into intelligent and effective messages.
Heartwork
So, how does this look in practice? A good example is Inspari, one of Denmark’s leading business intelligence and data companies with a workforce of highly sought-after specialists. Full disclosure: Pravda has helped design the concept — so, naturally, I am a little biased.
The cornerstone of the company’s approach to employer branding and EVPs is the concept ‘Heartwork’, which combines the three most important ingredients for success at Inspari: hard work, dedication, and passion in its fullest form.
Inspari has worked hard as hell to execute their concept and to ensure that ‘Heartwork’ permeates their initiatives aimed at employees. From ‘backstage’ Instagram stories with employee relays to internal hackathons, graduate programs, soccer teams, and video testimonials from employees. ‘Heartwork’ becomes much more than a fancy headline; it’s a mindset that sets the overall direction and provides renewed energy.
The concept aside, Inspari obviously still needs to work hard to retain their talented staff. And that requires a lot of work on several fronts, not just employer branding initiatives.
The power of the ‘Heartwork’ concept is that it compresses a collection of well-defined value propositions and offers a clear response to what employees can expect from the workplace. At the same time, they are adequately differentiated from the competition and Inspari owns the position in a credible way.
